Four Years Later: Measuring the Impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada

Four Years Later: Measuring the Impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada

A truth and reconciliation commission was appointed last year by the Norwegian Parliament and the work in the secretariat starts in 2019. Four years ago the commission in Canada published the report from its work. What can we learn from their experience?

As Norway is embarking on its own truth and reconciliation process, what lessons can we draw from the Canadian experience? This talk will focus on the aftermath of the TRC in Canada and its impact on Indigenous-setter relations, with a focus on changes in government policies and broad societal attitudes towards Indigenous peoples and the reconciliation agenda. It will underscore the importance of the TRC’s vision of reconciliation as a long term, ongoing, process rather than as a one-time exercise. It will then discuss some of the obstacles in maintaining the truth and reconciliation process alive after the commission’s work is over and the role of civil society actors in keeping governments accountable to this reconciliation process.

Martin Papillon is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Université Montreal, in Canada. His researches focus on Indigenous politics in Canada. His current work looks at the politics of reconciliation in the context of Canadian federalism and at the impact of Indigenous self-government models in northern Canada. He is also involved in a comparative project on indigenous strategies in mobilizing the UNDRIP in the context of land management and natural resource extraction projects.